Rejuvenated Putz a Happy Camper With White Sox

There may not be anyone more eager to have a good time in the American League again than J.J. Putz.

The former Seattle Mariners closer is back in the league he knows best, pitching for the Chicago White Sox after bone spurs in his elbow wrecked his 2009 season with the New York Mets.

Putz’s arm is fine now and his body 25 pounds lighter after he followed strict workout and diet programs in the offseason. And, he’s smiling like he did as a Mariner when he saved 101 games from 2004-2008.

He hasn’t allowed a run in two innings for the White Sox this month, including one Monday in their 5-4 loss to the Mariners. He walked Ichiro Suzuki to start the fifth inning but got Chone Figgins to fly out and Franklin Gutierrez to ground into a double play.

The last time Putz had fun at the ballpark, from the beginning of the season to the end?

“Well, ’07 was a good time,” he said. The Mariners won 88 games that year and Putz, their merry prankster, recorded a career-best 40 saves.

After that season, there was no more joy in shaving-cream pieville.

Arm problems limited Putz to 47 relief appearances in 2008, and if that didn’t make it a tough season, the Mariners’ 101 losses certainly did. Eager to go home and try to get away from it all, the Mariners ensured that when they traded Putz to the New York Mets in an 11-player, three-team trade.

Like the Mariners of 2008, the 2009 Mets went into the season with high expectations and crumbled amid injuries. Putz felt pain in the elbow early in the season but, feeling pressure to live up to the trade, he kept pitching. Eventually he had to shut down and undergo surgery in June to remove bone spurs.

“It’s always frustrating when you can’t pitch,” he said. “It was like a bomb went off and the injuries kept piling up. With all the expectations going into the new stadium and everything, it was very disappointing. Especially when you get traded for that many guys and you’re not able to perform because you’re not healthy. It’s just not fun.”

There’s a chance Putz will find fun this year with the White Sox.

He’s back in the American League on a team that’s deep with relief pitching, and it reunites him with another reliever also groomed by the Mariners, left-hander Matt Thornton.

“We had some other offers, but overall it was just a good fit,” Putz said. “Arizona spring training was something I was looking toward. I didn’t want to go back to Florida.

“I kind of wanted to (return to) the American League, too, because the National League is just a different game. It’s hard to adjust to, especially if you’re not the closer. If you’re a setup guy, you can be getting up in the seventh depending if the pitcher’s spot is coming up. You never really know exactly when you’re going to pitch.”

Putz said he worked harder this winter than any offseason in his career, and the new diet has helped him drop to close to 250 pounds. He weighed about 260 with the Mariners and said he ballooned last summer because of the inactivity after the elbow surgery.

He was back on the mound Monday against his old team and, yes, Putz was impressed with the Mariners.

“Having Ichiro and (Chone) Figgins at the top of the order is not fun to face, especially when the nine-hole hitter bunts one down the line and it stops on the chalk,” Putz said. “It puts you in a hole with those two guys up next. Casey Kotchman at first, that guy’s like a vacuum over there. He gets everything.

“As a Seattle fan, I’d be very excited about what they did this offseason.”